A coalition of groups at Harvard urged the university to reject striking a deal with the Trump administration that would relinquish “the university’s autonomy in unconstitutional or unlawful ways.”
The letter, signed by more than 14,000 Harvard alumni, students, faculty and members of the public, comes as the school is at the negotiating table with the Trump administration. The university is trying to restore the billions of dollars in research funds that the Trump administration has frozen and put an end to attacks on several other fronts.
“A settlement with the Trump administration will have a chilling effect on the Harvard community and on all of higher education,” stated the letter, sent by Crimson Courage, a new alumni group that formed to defend academic freedom. It was addressed to Alan M. Garber, the university’s president, and the board that governs the university.
The government has targeted top universities, claiming that they have failed to protect Jewish students from antisemitism and allowed diversity programming to flourish. It has cut off or frozen research money, forcing universities to negotiate to turn the funding tap back on.
Several universities recently struck agreements with the Trump administration that could inform the terms of the negotiations.
Columbia University signed a deal that included more than $200 million in payment to the government in exchange for the restoration of more than $400 million in grants that were terminated or frozen by the Trump administration. Brown University agreed to pay $50 million to state work-force development programs along with other demands to restore frozen funding. The University of Pennsylvania also recently struck a deal that limits how transgender athletes can participate in sports.
The letter on Thursday urged Harvard to reject that trend.
“Columbia and Brown’s settlements represent a dangerous capitulation that risks eroding the foundation of American higher education,” the letter stated. “They must not become a precedent guiding Harvard or other higher educational institutions nationwide.”
It added: “Do not give in.”
Harvard did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
It is the only university that has directly sued the administration, a move that had been praised by some who saw the elite school as one of the few powerful institutions standing up to the Trump administration’s conservative agenda. That decision prompted a wave of donations.
But as the school has indicated that it is willing to make a deal with the government, professors have worried that if an influential university like Harvard turns over a large sum of money, it would have a cascading effect on higher education as a whole.
“At one level I understand why you do this,” said Todd Wolfson, the president of the American Association of University Professors, a faculty rights group. “You need to run your institution. It needs to be financially whole. But at another level, I feel like in preserving the institution you’re selling out the sector.”
He added that “the most powerful, well-heeled institutions of higher education in this country are cutting deals with the Trump administration that undermine the future of higher education.”
Last month, the administration accused Duke University of “systematic racial discrimination” and froze $108 million in research funding, before issuing findings or even conducting an investigation. The administration said recently that it was seeking $1 billion from the University of California, Los Angeles, after the school settled a lawsuit that accused the university of not interfering when pro-Palestinian protesters blocked campus access to Jewish students.
Gov. Gavin Newsom of California and other political leaders in that state have said they would push back against the president’s targeting of U.C.L.A. Earlier in the week, the governor also criticized Harvard for negotiating with the Trump administration, suggesting Dr. Garber should resign for trying to work with the president.